No Need to Sit Up Straightto Get Out of That Slump
Posted Sep 13 2008 3:50am
“Stop slumping and sit up straight!” How many times did you hear that one when you were growing up?
Yeah, me too. In fact, as I write this, my butt is at the edge of my chair with my back leaning against the top.
Ahhh, it’s so much more comfortable. Do you feel the same way? You should, advise a team of Scottish radiologists, according to Canadian Press via the Toronto Star.
A special magnetic resonance imaging scanner revealed “sitting at a 90-degree angle puts unnecessary pressure on the disks of the lower back, which can lead to back pain, disk degeneration and sciatica.” Ouch!
“The idea of sitting ramrod straight is really not good for the body,” Pat McKee, a professor of occupational therapy at the University of Toronto, tells the Canadian Press “It means that your muscles, your trunk muscles, have to work more.”
In fact, the best position to sit at is the one I’m enjoying and just described: a 135-degree angle. The only better position is lying down. Maybe we should put our computer screens on the ceiling?
So erase another one of those old parenting saws from your nag list and let your kid slump. Fat chance, right?
Anyway, my kids never sit long enough to slump – Seth much prefers climbing the backs of chairs, sitting backwards, rocking the chair precariously so it sometimes falls or running away from the kitchen table.
And Lael? She likes to put both of her feet up on the table while she eats. Hey, it would put her body at a nice 135-degree angle if she wasn’t strapped into her booster seat.
“Stop slumping and sit up straight!” How many times did you hear that one when you were growing up?
Yeah, me too. In fact, as I write this, my butt is at the edge of my chair with my back leaning against the top.
Ahhh, it’s so much more comfortable. Do you feel the same way? You should, advise a team of Scottish radiologists, according to Canadian Press via the Toronto Star.
A special magnetic resonance imaging scanner revealed “sitting at a 90-degree angle puts unnecessary pressure on the disks of the lower back, which can lead to back pain, disk degeneration and sciatica.” Ouch!
“The idea of sitting ramrod straight is really not good for the body,” Pat McKee, a professor of occupational therapy at the University of Toronto, tells the Canadian Press “It means that your muscles, your trunk muscles, have to work more.”
In fact, the best position to sit at is the one I’m enjoying and just described: a 135-degree angle. The only better position is lying down. Maybe we should put our computer screens on the ceiling?
So erase another one of those old parenting saws from your nag list and let your kid slump. Fat chance, right?
Anyway, my kids never sit long enough to slump – Seth much prefers climbing the backs of chairs, sitting backwards, rocking the chair precariously so it sometimes falls or running away from the kitchen table.
And Lael? She likes to put both of her feet up on the table while she eats. Hey, it would put her body at a nice 135-degree angle if she wasn’t strapped into her booster seat.
Sit up straight. Hah!